10-year-old B.C. girl may be world's youngest certified axe-throwing judge

Axe-throwing isn't typically thought of as a kids' sport, but Maddy Mathe isn't a typical kid.

At 10 years old, she's probably the youngest certified axe-throwing judge in the world.

Her journey to that distinction – one that's hard to prove because the World Axe Throwing League doesn't track the ages of its judges – began with a father-daughter date night.

"We were just walking by and we saw the sign, so we decided to stop by," Maddy told CTV News.

The sign in question was at Axe and Grind in downtown Victoria. Maddy's dad Brian Mathe saw it and thought, "Why not?"

Maddy was nine at the time, three years too young to throw real axes.

"I got given a plastic one," she recalled.

"She was throwing plastic axes in the lane beside me," added Brian.

That was fine, until Ragnar Olafson showed up.

"I brought over one of our smaller real axes and said, 'Want to give this a try?'" Olafson said. "Her face just lit up and she said, 'Oh yeah.'"

Maddy loved the feeling of throwing a real axe.

"It made me feel not so small," she said. "More big."

Now 10, she's by far the youngest member of Axe and Grind's in-house axe-throwing league.

Wanting to nurture his daughter's new hobby, Brian suggested she volunteer for the club.

"So I asked Ragnar if he could teach me how to judge," Maddy said.

He did, and Maddy studied to write the World Axe Throwing League judge's exam.

"She failed the first time, but the second one, she got it," said Brian.

For Maddy, the appeal of axe-throwing – beyond the opportunity to spend time with her dad – is the feeling of the axe leaving her hand.

"You never quite know if it'll land in the bull's-eye, if it'll land in the zero," she said. "It's just that anticipation."

With files from CTV Vancouver Island's Jordan Cunningham